Futuristic Ping Pong Table is Also Your Coach

Ping pong's rise from your dad's basement to tech startup office mainstay has brought the sport new rounds of appreciation. With newfound respectability comes new tech, and it'd be hard to imagine a cooler ping pong table than the one created Thomas Mayer.

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At first glance Mayer's creation calls to mind the smart tables created by Samsung and Microsoft, an interactive surface. But this isn't a screen, it's just a regular old ping pong table but with two PlayStation Eye cameras and a full HD projector displaying visualizations on it. It was vital for Mayer that this table be able to help a single player, perhaps a competitive one, improve their game. The information, made displayable with vvvv, offers everything from high scores to endurance tracking.

Although it's only a prototype, the upcoming Olympics should give the sport a boost in the public eye even beyond the reach of startup common rooms. From there, it's easy to imagine a market developing for people who want to improve their game.

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